Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 251 The League's "Guardians of Justice" Arrive!
"???"

"Others find winning boring, but I find charging in boring. Waaah, I'm crying."

"In the sweltering heat, I'm a couch potato shivering with cold. Can't we League of Legends fans have some peace and quiet?!"

"A lewd live stream?"

"Write down the IDs of everyone upstairs. Arrange for the expedited list in July!"

Uzi's interview, with its familiar flavor and formula, delighted the goofy audience, who then started flooding the screen with memes.

This was Xiaoyu's first time getting up close to Uzi, the most legendary player in the LPL. She had a constipated expression on her face, as if she was saying, "I'm so angry, but I have to pretend." Fortunately, she quickly realized that there was a camera on her, so she calmed herself down and asked her second question.

"The next question is, many people have noticed today that RNG's tactics have changed and are quite different from their previous style. Could Uzi tell us when they started practicing these tactics?"

"I originally wanted to be humble about this question."

Li Luo took the microphone and smiled:
"But thinking about it, RNG has been guiding the LPL's tactics since winning the S7 championship, and they swept the championship in the first half of S8. It would be a bit too much to be modest. We only started practicing this tactic after we finished the last match, so it's been more than ten days now, right?"

"."

Xiaoyu looked incredulous, but we dared not question or ask.

Director, how am I supposed to respond to something like that? You didn't tell me beforehand!
Starting from S8, Uzi's interviews became increasingly arrogant and confident, and this domineering aura overflowed the entire screen.

This change in personality, in professional competitive matches, will not become a point of attack for fans; on the contrary, it is a particularly encouraging performance.

To give a prime example, until the end of the S10 World Championship, the best result achieved by a domestically produced mid-laner in the LPL was still a world runner-up finish.

Netizens on the Backkick forum have also come up with a new idea: they've edited together a comparison of the statements made by past champion mid-laners.

Doinb: "Winning the championship means we are the number one region!"

Faker: "I'll be standing until the end! Because I'm Faker!"

Rookie: "I will protect everything in IG."

Caps: "I can already picture myself holding the trophy in my mind. I will do everything in my power to make this dream a reality."

showmaker: "It is our duty to restore the glory of LCK."

Left Hand: "Reaching the semi-finals is a success."

???

Compared to this "humility" that could be considered a lack of confidence, Li Luo could imagine that since he started this trend, the playing styles of LPL players might change drastically.

Young people who can shine on this professional stage are all one in a thousand, one in ten thousand gaming geniuses. If they don't act a little wildly, they will seem dull and lifeless.

The reactions in the live chat also demonstrate the fans' love for the charismatic player.

"666, I'm impressed!"

"Mad Dog, Mad Dog, you're really wild!"

"If we can win the S8 championship, Uzi will truly become a legend, and his historical record will even match Faker's!"

A World Championship title is a glorious achievement.

Two S-series championships are what make someone a legend.

Even in history, among all the teams in the world, only Skt has won two consecutive championships.

With version updates, the emergence of new talents, and the targeting of teams worldwide and Riot Games, what looks promising this year may disintegrate and fall to the bottom of the league next year.

SKT won the championship in S3, but became a relegation team in S4.

SSW won the championship in S4, and in S5 they simply disbanded to avoid Riot Games' righteous iron fist.

SSG won the S7 championship and withstood the pressure to enter S8. However, their group stage record of one win and five losses also made them a weak team.

As the team with the strongest control besides SKT, IG won the S8 championship and entered the S9 World Championship, but fell in the semifinals and failed to defend their title.

FPX won the S9 World Championship, but in S10, neither they nor IG made it to the World Championship.

Apart from SKT in S5 and S6, no one can escape the terrifying championship curse.

RNG is arguably the team with the best chance of breaking this curse after SKT, and they even beat SKT to win the MSI championship this year.

But what about the World Championship?

Many people are not optimistic about it.

There are still three minor updates, one major update, and a final tweak to the World Championship version to go before the final World Championship version is confirmed. It will take five updates to confirm the final World Championship version.

However, the first major update of the Summer Split was a heavy blow to RNG's system.

The existence of Riot's designers is like that of a dimensional god in the game League of Legends, capable of freely altering the food chain and game mechanics.

Going against the only god in League of Legends?
After this match, the Intercontinental Cup became the focus of everyone's attention.

If RNG can win the Intercontinental Cup, or if any LPL team can win the Intercontinental Cup, it will become another focus of Riot Games' designers.

Due to scheduling conflicts, the Asian Games ended and the intense LPL Summer Split began, causing the Rift Rivals to be postponed again and again, and the date for the Rift Rivals has not yet been confirmed.

From a timing perspective alone, the timing of the Intercontinental Cup is relatively awkward. In May, before the Intercontinental Cup, there is the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), which is supported by the "mini World Championship". Each major region in the world sends one team to compete for the title of the strongest region in the first half of the year.

After the intercontinental competition, there's the Asian Games, an officially organized Asian melee with a high level of prestige.

In comparison, the Asian Invitational Tournament hosted by Riot Games immediately seemed inferior.

In September, following the Intercontinental Cup, comes the annual League of Legends World Championship, making the Intercontinental Cup, which is sandwiched in July, less popular.

Furthermore, June to August is generally the time for the summer season competitions of various major regions. In the midst of the intense and exciting summer season, a week is forcibly inserted to hold the intercontinental competition.

While it helps to understand each other's strengths to some extent, it also means that other teams lose a week of opportunity to test their abilities through the league.

Furthermore, the Intercontinental Cup mainly involves the top four teams, while the World Championship is for the top three. Judging from the S7 tournament, most of the teams that participated in the Intercontinental Cup also made it to the World Championship.

The viewership data for the inaugural Intercontinental Cup in 2017 looks pretty good, with a peak viewership of 830 million and 2 million unique viewers, but in reality, it's not that impressive.

Compared to the MSI Championship in the same year, the results of the Intercontinental Cup were not outstanding.

In 2017, the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) attracted 364 million unique viewers and a peak concurrent viewership of 4.3 million. While these figures appear higher than the Mid-Season Invitational, it's important to consider that MSI only requires one set of event organization costs (venue, personnel), whereas the Rift Rivals require five. Events held in five different regions globally that don't achieve three to four times the viewership and promotional impact of MSI are essentially considered relatively mediocre.

For viewers, the desire to watch the Intercontinental Cup is actually not very strong. The Summer Split is a relatively intense competition that determines whether their favorite team can make it to the World Championship.

For the vast majority of viewers, watching the summer seasons of various regions is sufficient to meet their needs, and the Intercontinental Cup may even affect the viewing experience of some team fans and player fans.

Ultimately, in terms of regional competition, a fan economy centered on teams and players is difficult to implement. After all, for any given region, the overall championship doesn't actually mean much to a single team or fan.

As a vocal critic on Twitter, his close friend from the European and American esports teams immediately fired back, arguing that there was absolutely no need to hold the competition.

"To be honest, I don't care about this competition at all."

Perkz, who is still playing mid lane for G2, made no attempt to hide his opinion.

“I don’t think this competition has a place in an already crowded season. So I think Riot should remove this event. Besides, we have to fly to North America, or worse, we’ve already flown a lot recently.”

With Perkz's outburst, the LPL and LCK regions responded one after another, and it became clear that canceling the Intercontinental Cup was inevitable.

Riot Games has not given a direct response, but the fact that they have been slow to announce the match time suggests that the Intercontinental Cup may be canceled.

In fact, the Intercontinental Cup was also canceled in S10. However, in this timeline, it was unexpected that the Intercontinental Cup would disappear from everyone's sight after only one edition.

Version updates always involve a carrot and stick approach: first a harsh blow, then a small reward, to keep the version active.

But no one expected that version 8.11 was just the first blow to RNG.

Immediately after defeating IG, they used the same tactics to slaughter BLG and SN, and then patch 8.12 finally arrived.

First, there's a general buff to all jungle champions: Kindred's Q and E are buffed, Lee Sin's W and E are buffed, Sejuani's W and E are buffed, and Taliyah receives a minor buff.
Basically, every jungler champion that appears in matches has been buffed by Riot Games.

Everyone knows Sima Zhao's intentions.

In contrast to the buffs to jungle champions, the shields of all enchanter supports have been significantly weakened, maximizing their ability to protect the ADC.

If the previous few heroes weren't considered blatantly targeted, since buffs and nerfs in professional matches affect all teams, then the next change definitively confirms that Riot's designers were targeting RNG.

RNG's tactics, which they had just demonstrated, were immediately met with what could be described as the most "fierce" blow.

After picking Sion and Nautilus, both Letme and Xiaohu built the Banner of Command to push lanes, making them incredibly strong.

However, in version 8.12, Banner of Command was permanently removed!

In response, the designer stated:

"Our initial idea for Banner of Command was for a warrior champion to use to control minion waves after acquiring three to four core items and dealing significant damage. However, it's clear that it has been too overpowered in recent patches, so we will be removing this item entirely to restore balance to Summoner's Rift in League of Legends."

On various gaming media and platforms, netizens eagerly awaited the latest developments, sharing their opinions.

"Thank goodness, Sima's equipment is finally gone. Every time I play Vladimir top lane, even with 700 AP in the late game, I just can't do anything against this magic-immune minion."

"With the banner of command gone, didn't RNG's previous tactics completely fail?"

"Waaaaah, is Riot Games trying to kill RNG?"

Li Luo had seen the gossip and rumors from the outside world in his spare time, and felt helpless.

In his recollection, the changes to remove Banner of Command did indeed exist, and the culprits were LPL teams, represented by RNG. However, bringing it up now is clearly aimed at RNG.

Fortunately, the delayed arrival of Stormrazor relieved Li Luo's anxiety. Stormrazor, which was originally scheduled to arrive in patch 8.11 along with Infinity Edge, was inexplicably postponed, which was probably a butterfly effect caused by his alteration of the professional esports landscape.

There's no way around it. Unless Uzi never wins a championship, the fact that RNG has suddenly become a champion in history, a home championship at the Bird's Nest, has caused a huge change in the entire LPL region and RNG. How could the version changes still go as expected?

Faced with this situation, as an athlete, one can only accept it calmly and prove oneself through more training and results.

Aside from occasionally going for a walk the day before a match, the RNG players spend most of their time in the training room, working hard to improve their existing system.

But as it turns out, developing a completely new system is not something that Li Luo can solve simply by telling everyone how to fight, how to play, and how to handle different situations.

In the upcoming summer regular season.

2-0, a complete victory over VG.

Two to zero, a complete victory over EDG.

Two to one, a narrow victory over FPX.

Two to one, a narrow victory over LGD.

Two to zero, a complete victory over Rw.

This achievement shocked and bewildered countless viewers and fans.

RNG's current state isn't a question of whether they're strong or not, but rather a very peculiar wave-like fluctuation that is extremely unstable.

Why do you say that?
Because IG, RW, and EDG are among the top teams in the Summer Split, while FPX and LGD are in the lower half of the league. Although they are not at the bottom, they are still the weak teams that RNG used to easily defeat.

RNG was able to defeat the first two teams 2-0, and when they got into a rhythm, they were incredibly dominant and crushing. This led many viewers to believe that RNG could easily win the S-series championship this year. However, when they played the latter team, they showed varying degrees of poor performance.

If it weren't for Uzi's consistent performance, often turning the tide in the 40-50 minute mark, the team might have lost to these teams due to an early disadvantage.

It's quite a mystery.

Neither the commentators nor the various news media outlets eager to capitalize on the trending topic can figure out what exactly is going on with RNG.

If you're talking about praising RNG, then yes, they definitely deserve praise. They crushed IG and RW.

But if you say RNG is underperforming? They are indeed underperforming, with an extremely high average number of mistakes per game, and small-scale team fights that break out in the early game, resulting in two or three kills being given away in one go.

RNG's current playstyle, in the eyes of outsiders, is the infamous "Seven Injury Fist".

Once you can gain an advantage in the early to mid-game by aggressive play and get into a rhythm, you'll be unstoppable.

Conversely, if you make mistakes due to offense and give away too many kills, the opponent will seize the opportunity and easily slaughter you as if you were playing against bots.

This is why many people call RNG "the messenger of justice".

They're taking points from strong teams and giving away points to weak ones. The league is already in the summer split, but the qualification results are still unpredictable.

(End of this chapter)